Marco Rubio Looks to Cut Down on Obamacare Fraud

With fewer Americans opting to enroll in President Barack Obamas federal health-care program online due to the well-reported problems at Healthcare.gov, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced a bill on Thursday to raise standards on navigators and hopefully crack down on fraud.

Rubios Healthcare Privacy and Anti-Fraud Act would ensure training and background checks for navigators enrolling Americans in the health care program. The legislation would also impose criminal penalties on navigators who compromise Americans personal information and on con men claiming to be navigators. The legislation would also create lists of authorized navigators and those deemed ineligible to serve as navigators or convicted of crimes under the statute."

Rubio has sponsored legislation calling for delaying the individual mandate due to the continued website problems and his new bill has a similiar provision. The new legislation would create a safe harbor on the individual mandate for Americans who are incorrectly guided by navigators and fraudsters portraying themselves as navigators.

Some of the leading Republicans in the Senate, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are co-sponsoring the bill.

The Obamacare exchange websites were supposed to be the primary means for people to buy health insurance, but due to their failures so far, the federal government is forcing people to pursue other enrollment options that could make them even more susceptible to identity theft, particularly through the navigator system, Rubio said on Thursday. Just yesterday, Secretary Sebelius made a startling admission that convicted felons could become navigators.

It is unacceptable that President Obama suggest that the American people simply trust the federal government and its network of Obamacare navigators, Rubio added. As consumers are being pushed to shop for insurance through Obamacare navigators and other non-online options, they must also proceed with great care and caution against fraudsters intending to do them harm.

This is a common-sense effort to ensure that the federal government is not needlessly endangering the private information of millions of Americans, or exposing them to additional risk of fraud, Rubio insisted.